In the 15th National Inter-zonal Junior athletic championship in Bhopal, Tamil Nadu won the overall championship leaving Uttar Pradesh in the second place. How many medals did Tamil Nadu win overall, and in which categories? How many points did it accumulate?

Well, the organisers of the Bhopal meet were not bothered to provide the details, or even make an attempt to calculate. Roughly, everyone knew that Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh were in contention for the title, so the team managers of these two States sat together and went about calculating who won what and how much.

Overall, excluding the under-14 category, Tamil Nadu won 20 gold, 10 silver and 18 bronze medals as against Uttar Pradesh's 17, 10 and 13 in that order. Unfortunately, on the final day of the meet, there hardly was any time to draw any inference based on such a sketchy data.

To be fair to all, it is essential to have a class-wise medal tally and points table. It also helps the States to learn in which age categories they are weak in.

In the Junior men (under-20) category, U.P. led the medals tally with six gold, three silver and three bronze medals. Tamil Nadu (2-2-3) which was third behind Maharashtra (2-6-3) also gave a good show.

Expectations were there from Uttar Pradesh sprinter Vishal Saxena but he seemed troubled by the conditions. Though he ran faster than his Zonal timings, Saxena (10.87s) was way off the meet record in the 100-metre dash.

On the second day of the meet, Saxena came a poor fifth in the 200m sprint as steady rain spoiled the hopes of record-seekers. Rain continued into the third and final day making it difficult for the athletes as no National record could be bettered. However, a new meet record was set by discus thrower Simranjeet Singh, who launched the disc to a distance of 51.62 m bettering his own record (51.35m).

It was a close finish in the boys' under-18 category. U. P. edged ahead of Tamil Nadu, winning three gold, four silver and four bronze medals. Tamil Nadu (3-1-3) was second and Delhi (3-1-0) third. U. P. thrower Shahnawaj Khan and Haryana jumper Rajesh had their share of glory  both set new National marks in hammer and high jump respectively.

Rajesh (high jump)

In the boys' under-16 category, U. P. was clear winner with a tally of three gold, one silver and one bronze medals. Haryana (2-2-0) and Orissa (2-1-1) came second and third respectively. Among the 15 States that figured in the medals tally, Tamil Nadu was placed lowest at the bottom with just one bronze medal. Need we say that TN should concentrate on this area?

Women power came to the rescue of Tamil Nadu though. In the junior women section, Tamil Nadu won six gold, three silver and four bronze medals. In the second place was Bengal (5-3-2), followed by Uttar Pradesh (3-3-1).

Pole vaulter V. S. Surekha improved her own National record by a significant margin when she cleared 3.40m to give Tamil Nadu the gold medal. Her old record stood at 2.85m, which was achieved last year in Chennai.

Again, in the girls' under-18 category, Uttar Pradesh humbled Tamil Nadu, winning five gold and two bronze medals. Tamil Nadu (4-3-4) and Haryana (3-1-2) settled for second and third place respectively.

What cost Uttar Pradesh the most was that it failed to strike any medal in the girls' under-16 category. Tamil Nadu (5-1-3) led the tally and was followed by Bengal (4-3-2) and Haryana (2-1-0), in that order.

Jhuma Khatun (No. 745, 800m)

Middle distance runner Jhuma Khatun emerged as a good prospect. The 10th standard student of Lakhuria High School, Kolkata, showed good maturity in pacing herself in the middle-distance races.

Jhuma won the 800-metre run in two minutes 17.62 seconds and bettered an eight-year-old National mark. The old record of 2:18.9 was held by Anuradha. She set that record in New Delhi. Jhuma then went on to beat the meet record in the 2000m to help Bengal script a splendid show.

Tamil Nadu's A. Anitcham won two gold medals, in shot put and discus, and had the satisfaction of setting a new National record in shot put. She heaved the iron ball to 11.61m to better Aplesh's (11.53m) mark.

Something seemed amiss. The National inter-zonal produced just five National records and two meet records. Maybe the absence of Kerala, which for some reason failed to reach Bhopal, affected the overall positions in the medals tally.